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Part 1: Why I scrapped my (very good) book manuscript

Eleanor Beaton

The other day a client asked me why she got a notification from Amazon that the publication date for my book, Why Women Don’t Want Power had been pushed ahead by a couple of years. 

There are two answers to that question — one short and one long. I’ll start with the short.

I do not have a sweet clue why Amazon is moving the pub date ahead by two years. The book itself is toast (more on that in a mo). I was surprised when I first saw it up on Amazon more than a year ago (it wasn’t finished) and am still surprised it’s still up there. 

The obvious conclusion is that JEFF BEZOS IS OBSESSED WITH ME. 

Here’s the longish answer.

I completed the manuscript two years ago and submitted it to my editor. They were impressed and if you read my emails you can probably guess why. I have co-written many other books that have been shortlisted for major awards and sold well beyond the “Number One on Amazon for 14-day sales window in Underwater Basket Weaving Category”. In short, girlfriend has some RIGHTING SKILZ.

As I worked through the revisions, however, I started to get uncomfortable. I had the sense that something was missing. The book explores the tenuous relationship women have with power and how this shapes our careers and businesses. It’s a fantastic topic and I still get excited just thinking about it.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that a) much of what I was putting forth in the book was not very new and b) there was a crucial ingredient missing.

Meanwhile, I was sitting on my revisions. Now — here’s the thing. I’m not generally a procrastinator when it comes to my work. I LOVE my work. So if I am procrastinating on something it’s a sign that…

I’M CONSTIPATED.

Specifically, there is some aspect of the procrastinated project that is undigested. 

I asked myself if I needed to draft some new chapters to fix the problem. But the piece that was missing felt fundamental to the entire book. This wasn’t something that could be fixed with a couple of chapters because, I realized, the entire hypothesis of the book was flawed. 

I did the super coachy thing of asking myself if NOT wanting to publish the book was a) perfectionism b) being afraid of being seen c) being afraid of my own power (how ironic) but while I could make a possible case for ANY of these answers, the truth was the hypothesis was flawed and I couldn’t bear it.

So NOW I had an important choice to make. Do I forge ahead and publish it as it was so I could “build my platform!” OR do I hit pause and investigate what this missing ingredient actually was?

This is getting long so I’ll share the answer in part two of this series on my Thursday missive. 

PS. I am in fact obsessed with the process of creating effective hypotheses, and how they can help me in analysis and decision-making. If you are a fellow nerd and enjoy topics like this, check out today’s podcast (itself a series!) where I break down a 3-step process to help you make better business decisions.

 

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